DANISH STUDY: ANTIDEPRESSANTS PRODUCE ADDICTION AND WITHDRAWAL SIMILAR TO BENZODIAZAPHINES

Patients have LONG reported horrific withdrawal from the SSRI antidepressants. It became apparent how very dangerous the withdrawal is in the early 90’s after Prozac was introduced at the end of 1987. But because the warning of addiction and withdrawal associated with a group of drugs results in a restrictions in prescribing and therefore, decreased sales of the drugs, patients had to wait until 2005 before the FDA finally warned of the dangerous withdrawal associated with antidepressants. When their warning came it was a strong one: According to the FDA warning on antidepressant withdrawal ANY abrupt change in dose of an antidepressant, whether decreasing or increasing the dose, can produce such terrible results as suicide, hostility or psychosis.

Yet their warning appears to have fallen on the deaf ears of the medical profession who continue to deny any problem in dropping abruptly off these medications and they have patients do that assuring them there is no problem in it. And these same doctors also use the withdrawal to convince patients they “need” their drugs and must continue on them for a lifetime. This lack of information on withdrawal effects has led to the largest number of diagnosis for Bipolar Disorder the world has ever seen before! With patients going manic from this abrupt withdrawal so many are given this false diagnosis and live with it for years to come continuing to be medicated with deadly drugs that cut their lives short by and average of 25 years.

This is very critical information that must be recognized by the medical profession to prevent further injury to patients taking these drugs. In that decade and a half before warning came from the FDA we were busy collecting information and sharing with patients as together we worked to learn the best methods for minimizing the terrible withdrawal effects and making it off the drugs safely without going into a manic psychosis, which the FDA now warns of. The results of that decade and a half of experience were collected and compiled into a CD format for safe withdrawal helps called Help! I Can’t Get Off My Antidepressant! (1 1/2 hours long) now available on our drugawareness.org website in an inexpensive download.

From the following article on the Danish study we read:

“[Benzodiazaphines] used to treat depression from 1950 until the late 80s when SSRI drugs were released on the market.

“…Nielsen, along with Peter Gøtszche, director of Nordic Cochrane Centre, compares the symptoms which arise when people stop treatment with both SSRI medicine and benzodiazepines.

“The medicine causes addiction

“[Benzodiazaphines and antidepressants] are used to treat mental illness and both drugs function by affecting the central nervous system. But one thing sets them apart: the Danish Ministry of Health categorizes benzodiazepines as addictive and doctors are advised against prescribing it. This is not the case for SSRI drugs.

“And that makes no sense,” say Nielsen and Gøetzsche in the article’s conclusion.

”People get the exact same symptoms when they stop taking the drugs and in our view this makes it necessary to categorize SSRI drugs as addictive,” says Nielsen.

“More precisely, 37 out of 42 symptoms are identical, claims the article. This conclusion is inferred on background of a comparison between symptoms described in 45 papers on benzodiazepine addiction and 31 papers on SSRI discontinuation syndrome.

“It’s not a comprehensive clinical study on live people but a review and analysis of what previous studies have concluded. This can be the best way to uncover the effects of new medicine, says Nielsen.

“When you release a new medical drug to the market your knowledge about it is very limited,” says Nielsen, adding that this should cause for worry.”

WARNING:In sharing this information about adverse reactions to antidepressants I always recommend that you also give reference to my CD on safe withdrawal, Help! I Can’t Get Off My Antidepressant!, so that we do not have more people dropping off these drugs too quickly – a move which I have warned from the beginning can be even more dangerous than staying on the drugs!

The FDA also now warns that any abrupt change in dose of an antidepressant can produce suicide, hostility or psychosis. And these reactions can either come on very rapidly or even be delayed for months depending upon the adverse effects upon sleep patterns when the withdrawal is rapid! You can find the CD on safe and effective withdrawal helps here: http://store.drugawareness.org/

She has specialized since 1990 in adverse reactions to serotonergic medications (such as Prozac, Sarafem, Zoloft, Paxil, Luvox, Celexa, Lexapro, Effexor, Serzone, Remeron, Anafranil, Fen-Phen, Redux and Meridia as well as the new atypical antipsychotics Zyprexa, Geodon, Seroquel and Abilify), as well as pain killers, and has testified before the FDA and congressional subcommittee members on antidepressants.

WITHDRAWAL WARNING: In sharing this information about adverse reactions to antidepressants I always recommend that you also give reference to my CD on safe withdrawal, Help! I Can’t Get Off My Antidepressant!, so that we do not have more people dropping off these drugs too quickly – a move which I have warned from the beginning can be even more dangerous than staying on the drugs!

WITHDRAWAL HELP: You can find the hour and a half long CD on safe and effective withdrawal helps here: store.drugawareness.org And if you need additional consultations with Ann Blake-Tracy, you can book one at www.drugawareness.org or sign up for one of the memberships for the International Coalition for Drug Awareness which includes free consultations as one of the benefits of that particular membership plan. You can even get a whole month of access to the withdrawal CD with tips on rebuilding after the meds, all six of my DVDs, hundreds of radio interviews, lectures, TV interviews I have done over the years PLUS my book on antidepressants with more information than you will find anywhere else for only $30 membership for a month (that is only $5 more than the book alone would cost) at www.drugawareness.org. (Definitely the best option to save outrageous postage charges for those out of the country!)

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"I was stunned at the amount of research Ann B. Tracy has done on this subject. Few researchers go to as much trouble agressively gathering information on the adverse reactions of Prozac, Zoloft and other SSRIs."
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